Davis ‘confident’ she’ll win despite big cash-on-hand disadvantage

State Sen. Wendy Davis says she is confident she can win the gubernatorial race despite having one-third the cash of Attorney General Greg Abbott.

State Sen. Wendy Davis said Saturday she believes her gubernatorial campaign is headed for victory in November, even following finance reports that show Attorney General Greg Abbott with a 3-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage.

“I feel confident that, continuing the pace that we’re on now, we will have the resources that we need to run a very strong race and to win,” Davis told the Chronicle after opening her third campaign field office in Houston.

Abbott’s campaign has been hammering Davis, the Democratic nominee, for using “fuzzy math and Enron-style accounting to artificially inflate” the amount of money she has available to spend, including counting the $250,000 value of a Willie Nelson concert as an in-kind contribution in her latest report. The Davis campaign has countered that Abbott has also reported in-kind donations. (Both campaigns are required by state law to do so.)

What is largely unusual about Davis’ fundraising calculations is that some of the total figures advertised by her campaign come from a number of sources, not just her campaign account.

Davis shrugged off the accusations from her Republican opponent’s campaign as she left the event, telling the Chronicle: “Oh, you know, I’ll leave them to defend what they say. I’m just really thrilled with the fact that three out of the four fundraising cycles, we’ve done something that no one would have ever predicted we could do, and that is we’ve shown stronger numbers on those reports than they have for those periods.”

Abbott and Davis last week reported raising $11.1 million and $11.2 million, respectively, for the period covering Feb. 23 to June 30. Davis’ haul represents money raised by her campaign and a joint committee with Battleground Texas.

Although Davis raised more money during the latest period than Abbott did, she still faces a serious disadvantage in cash on hand. She has $13.1 million to Abbott’s nearly $36 million, according to their campaigns. (It is still important to note Abbott has been actively fundraising longer than Davis has.)